We’ve come to the last of the Top Cel issues that Vince Cafarelli saved. These take us through May of 1968. I’m not sure what happened then, whether Vinnie just got tired of saving them or whether Ed Smith stopped editing. Regardless, this is where we are, and this is the last post, for now, of the Top Cel issues.

Here are all of the Top Cel issues saved by Vince Cafarelli from 1967. These were all edited by the gifted animator, Ed Smith. Top Cel, of course, was the news reader of New York’s animation guild, Local 841.

This is our third installment of Vince Cafarelli‘s collection of the Ed Smith edited issues of Top Cel the u-nion organ. Local 841 of the MPScreen Cartoonists had Pepe Ruiz as their Business Rep., Izzy Klein as the President and Howard Beckerman as VP.

Feb 1963

2 3

4

5Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
March 1963
Cover unsigned but it looks like Ed Smith drew it

- It’s 1961-1962, and we return to Vinnie Caffarelli‘s collection of Top Cel, the u-nion’s monthly newsletter. As I wrote last week, the interest in this period of the publication is that the editor, animator Ed Smith, brought a lot of great graphics to the publication, and they really stood out. These were collector’s items for a lot of the membership, and I’m glad Vinnie had saved these so that I can share them with you. I have a collection of them that dates back a bit earlier, but all those have been in storage for some time and I can’t easily get to them.

We have in this group something that seems to have been fairly regular, the wraparound cover. The first and last pages of the newsletter unfold to be one long drawing. I’ve attached both pages and turn them on their side so they can be properly seen.

A lot ow work went into putting these newsletters together, so kudos to Ed Smith for having done such a great job.

- Over the years I’ve found that a number of animation personnel saved their copies of Top Cel, the u-nion newspaper. However, we’re not talking every copy of Top Cel, we’re focused on the Ed Smith years. Ed was the editor for a number of years, and his issues were filled with great graphics done by local members.

I have a complete collection from the late forties up to the final years. That collection has been in storage for the entire run of this Splog, or I would have been posting these sooner. However, there among the Vince Cafarelli collection was a couple of the Ed Smith years’ papers. Starting with July 1960 and running through May 1968, there are a lot of papers. I hope to post the graphics from these and wil pick out particular stories or images within to give an idea of what was happening in the business. I don’t want to post the entire thing, since many of the articles pertain specifically to u-nion business, and it seems pointless in its outdated nature.

We’ll start with the first 10 issues:

1
July 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

1a 1b(Click any of these frames to enlarge to a more legible size.)

2
August 1960
This issue, like many others, has to be turned clockwise to properly read.
For the sake of these covers, I am turning the image 90° c/w
for you to read and will do this for all subsequent covers.
Artwork by Ed Friedman

2a 2b

2c

3
Sept 1960
This cover was also turned 90° c/w.
Artwork by Spipol (? I have difficulty reading the name ?)

3a 3b

3b CU
This cartoon, by Ed Smith, makes fun of the fact that the fashionably popular
HuckleberrynHound and Yogi Bear were being advertised as “Adult” cartoons.

3c

Within this larger issue, there were two pages of photos taken at
the Annecy Animation Festival to which a number of members went.
The left page is posted above, the right page is posted below.

3d 3e
Reports about the Festival by two members, Dick Rauh and Hal Silvermintz.

4
October 1960
The front cover of this issue.
Artwork by Karl Fischer

4a 4b

The back cover

5
Nov 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

5a 5b

6
Jan 1961
Artwork by Len Glasser

6a 6b

6c
This back page had the contacts of all contracted studios in NY.
I love that P.Kim & L.Gifford have
different contact info from Gifford-Kim.

Inside is a 2-page promotion for the Hubley show at the
Beekman Theater. This was the premiere of their feature, Of Stars & Men.

This was the 2nd page of the promo.

There also must have been a middle page of text which is lost from this copy of the issue.

Attached the program looked like this.

This was my first viewing of the Hubley works. I had never seen a Hubley short
prior to this program. I was a Sophomore High School student at the time.
I went back a couple more times, and my world was changed forever.

To see some copies of Top Cel which were issued in 1945 and 1946, Richard O’Connor and his company’s blog Ace and Son has ostd quite a few of these issues. By going here, you’ll find 8 or 10 documents.